My wife and I were having a conversation this morning about the depiction of mental disability in Comics, animated shows and movies. The conversation came about when it hit her that the owl in Danial Tigers Neighborhood shows clear signs of autism. This is something I have noticed to be pretty common as the world tries to normalize these disorders through our children.

Characters all over the spectrum and through the ages ages have shown various forms of disability and I am not talking about the well known and documented stuff like Captain Hook's (Peter Pan) PTSD, Eeyore's (Winnie-the-Pooh) manic depression or Chuckie's (Rugrats) anxiety disorder, Nor am I talking about the cases where the show simply would not work with out or otherwise integral disorders like Dora's (Dora the Explorer) Fugue State, Sasuke's (Naruto) PTSD or Calvin's (Calvin and Hobbs) schizophrenia. I am also not talking about the disorders used for cheap laughs like Quagmire's (Family Guy) hypersexuality disorder, Spungebob's (Spungebob Squarepants) WBS or Pepe LePew's (Loony Toons) Narcissistic Personality Disorder.

While they all count as far as the topic of mental disorders in Comics, animated shows and movies I want to discuss the more subtle instances, the ones many of us probably never gave any thought about while watching/reading the stories. Things like Edd's (Ed Edd and Eddy) OCD, Lofty's (Bob the Builder) anxiety disorder and Helga's (Hey Arnold) Bi-Polar. The characters who had disorders that were written in, in a manor in which they seemed semi normal at the time but are glaringly obvious as we grow older._________________RPG-n. A computer programing language designed for business reporting that generates specific programs from the users specifications.(Report Program Generator)The American Heritage Dictionary

This normalization of disorders must be the reason, why are people on certain websites showing off with their excessive behavior and commonly blame those disorders for their irresponsible conducts. Their scheme can be described like this:
"If cartoons normalize irresponsible conduct, I'm entitled to repeat such irresponsible model of behavior, because it's commonly accepted by society."

And people wonder, where do online rowdies get inspiration for doing things they'd rather never do in real life. What was supposed to depict disorders as part of society, resulted in appreciation of narcissism bordering personality cult, when individuals adapt Nietzsche's humanity theory to own needs, claiming to be "the new master race, one of all kind". Some time ago I've written a blog post on Garfield Wiki about that http://garfield.wikia.com/wiki/User_blog:TeeJay87/How_Do_Fandoms_Affect_TV_Shows

Don't get me wrong - I'm not trying to stigmatize people with disorders. What I tried to focus attention on is common trend inside jerks of using mental disability as excuse for every socially unacceptable behavior, especially immaturity and treating others as expendable objects. We all know, that such excuses bring bad reputation to people with disorders, who do considerable efforts in adapting to societies they live in.

This normalization of disorders must be the reason, why are people on certain websites showing off with their excessive behavior and commonly blame those disorders for their irresponsible conducts. Their scheme can be described like this:
"If cartoons normalize irresponsible conduct, I'm entitled to repeat such irresponsible model of behavior, because it's commonly accepted by society."

And people wonder, where do online rowdies get inspiration for doing things they'd rather never do in real life. What was supposed to depict disorders as part of society, resulted in appreciation of narcissism bordering personality cult, when individuals adapt Nietzsche's humanity theory to own needs, claiming to be "the new master race, one of all kind". Some time ago I've written a blog post on Garfield Wiki about that http://garfield.wikia.com/wiki/User_blog:TeeJay87/How_Do_Fandoms_Affect_TV_Shows

Don't get me wrong - I'm not trying to stigmatize people with disorders. What I tried to focus attention on is common trend inside jerks of using mental disability as excuse for every socially unacceptable behavior, especially immaturity and treating others as expendable objects. We all know, that such excuses bring bad reputation to people with disorders, who do considerable efforts in adapting to societies they live in.

No, I am not thinking that is it. That looks more like the violent videogames made my kid violent ideology. that exibition of excessive behavior and blaming those disorders on the internet is based on the thought process of anonymity safety blanky, It is just stupid people thinking they can act like a retard because they think no one will find out who they are. The concept of people exhibiting excessive behavior and blame those disorders for their irresponsible conducts is something I have experience with in the real world. Back when I started working for this site I was a child care provider. I had no choice but to watch with my hands bound as the parent of the children nurtured that very behavior. The cat so much as sniffed his game boy, the kid would kick it across the room and his mother would sit there and cop the excuse, Oh that is just his autism, he can't control that impulse. For a number of years I fought with his mother, telling her to her face it wasn't his autism inhibiting his impulse control it was her tolerance of the excessive behavior and lack of discipline that leaves him not even caring to try to control it. After a number of years I said to hell with it and left, I just couldn't watch it any more.

From my point of view it seems more along the lines of, when viewed by a child with out disability "people with such and such tenancies are no different than you" with a similar yet opposite meaning when viewed by a child with that particular disability "That kid is just like me and he is no different than the other people". I can't help but to think that this normalization could or is possibly intended to result in people with, say...an incessant need to be neat and tidy or children who are afraid of everything from their own shadow to the boogyman don't come off as weird to other children. Maybe it's a pipe dream or maybe I am reading too much into it but...it is something to talk about. _________________RPG-n. A computer programing language designed for business reporting that generates specific programs from the users specifications.(Report Program Generator)The American Heritage Dictionary

Agreed about video games having negative impact on young minds; I remember from university classes about American penal law, that stuff like Doom , Quake and similar games easily corrupt kids, leading them to bring the warfare from screen to real life. Heck, we also had similar incidents in my homeland, when spoiled brats played too much Grand Theft Auto 3 and stole cars just because "they wanted to feel like gangstas."

You're right that wrong behavior is often taught by parents and kids repeat it, since it's natural they learn basic models of conduct inside families. On second thought, teenagers make exception from this rule, especially while remaining in youth rebel stage against parents.
I still remember couple of my classmates from junior high school, who had pleasure in vandalizing school and public property, often by smashing things up. None of the teaching personnel was willing to intervene, claiming that "those kids have diagnosed autism, the only way to deal with them is to let them appease their need of destruction." Much later I've discovered, that those junior high vandals have gotten into such trouble with the law, that they ended up in jail for mugging and violent robberies.

People with any disorders, regardless of their age, shouldn't be treated as "outsiders" - just because they have difficulties in performing single everyday tasks, it doesn't make them worse kind of humans. They may need some help from others, but under the mask of disability there's another human being.

Humans do come with a variety of brains and brain-issues. I don't think it's too weird to toss in some variety in your fictional characters sometimes. But I do wonder whether maybe you're jumping at shadows a little bit, as well? Like - of course Eeyore is depressed, that's obvious enough, but I never would have assumed Calvin had schizophrenia. He might. He also might just be a kid with a really vivid imagination, indulging in fantasies about an imaginary friend and fighting space-aliens to make life seem less boring. Or he might live in a fictional world where things work differently than here, and Hobbes actually is a person. I don't want to assume that any time a child's fantasies are depicted in a real way in media, that means the child has an illness. I know my life would have been a lot more boring without the stories I told myself - and I was a strange enough kid with the big vocabulary, the homeschooling, and my family not watching much TV without anybody getting worried about my mental health.

Powtaz, I can't tell what you're referring to. Is it my post in particular boring you, or this discussion topic in general? If the topic's not your fave you can always go enjoy a different thread - maybe resurrect something older?

Pssh. Enough salt to mummify a whale... I may need to borrow that one sometime.

I do sometimes like a good argument, if it's well-reasoned and/or if I'm pretty sure the participants are still going to be friends at the end of the day. But I've never seen the point of spattering one with insults and pandering to its lowest common denominator... Is this thread unusually shot on fireworks, or just full of normal people being normal people?